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Wednesday, December 19

The Indoor Play Centre Thing

As I sit here I am trying not to cringe. As one generally does when one finds oneself in circumstances that are less than favorable. Perhaps if the noise levels were not quite so high I would not be so on edge. Sometimes I wonder if I have super sensitive hearing because I often feel things are too loud when others don't.

Why does children having fun have to be so darn noisy anyway?

In all my eleven, nearly twelve years of mothering I have never really got the whole indoor play centre thing. Needless to say it is not something we partake in all that often. Which is good because when we do go it makes it all the more special.

Today is one of those special days. We were supposed to be catching up with some friends who will be leaving town in a few weeks. Only stupid here got the day wrong so if I want to see my friends I get to come back and do it all again tomorrow.

Oh yay.

What I don't get is how parents, mainly mothers going by those currently in the room, can justify regularly paying to sit and watch their children run around and scream under the pretense of having fun. The park pretty much has the same effect only it is free and outside. Which means the whole noise level factor is much easier to deal with as the excess sound can escape into the big open spaces.

Of course on days like today

Where big black clouds fill the sky park play may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Back to the indoor centre.

Everyone here seems to sit with their faces in pain, sipping coffee that based on facial expressions one could only assume was bitter and awful, while the fruits of their loins run havoc and try to break sound barriers.

Have I mentioned the noise?

There are eleven tables currently occupied. All but two of them are by women sitting alone. One or two are idly flipping through the newspaper. A few are engrossed in their phone. I wonder how parents survived this prior to smart phones. All look like they want to be anywhere but here. Which I totally get. I want to be anywhere but here as well.

So why do they come?

Why would you purposely choose to come and sit in a room full of people and be on your pat malone? To me it is nothing short of torture. I am well aware of my loneliness and I don't really need to be surrounded by people who are clearly in the same boat.

Sure if all these lonely people began interacting with each then that would be a different situation. But they don't. Everyone just seems to sit there looking around, staring mindlessly into space, all the while ensuring eye contact with each other is never made.

Or maybe it is just me? Maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe for all these other women this is their alone time. Or their fun time. Or their something that I just don't get. I certainly don't get how a mother could bring her days old baby into such a place. Each to their own I guess.